The North Carolina Competency Testing Program in reading, mathematics, and writing has been administered in all public schools in the state to students in grade 10 and those in grades 11 and 12 who had not previously passed this test. A total of 72,324 and 72,393 sophomores took the reading and mathematics tests, respectively, in 1988. The reading test was passed by 93.3% of high school sophomores, a decline of just over one percentage point from the passing rate in the 1985-1987 period. The mathematics test was passed by 89.7%, lower than the passing rates for 1982-1987, but higher than the rates for the 1978-1981 period. The most dramatic improvement in reading and mathematics occurred among Blacks and American Indians. In this third year of administration of the Competency Tests in writing, 87.2% of sophomores passed the writing objective test and 94.7% passed the writing essay test. This is lower than passing rates of 1987 for the objective test and higher on the essay test. The percentage of sophomores passing all four tests on the first attempt increased slightly over 1987. Data on students passing the tests, broken down by region, are summarized in 17 tables. (SLD)